The Age of Blood
by Writer-Steph-94
Summary: AU When Nick Fury appears at the Avengers Tower, a strange woman in tow, with orders to protect her the Avengers are wary. As they begin to get to know her they learn of what she truly is, the monster that she is both hunting and hunted by and the threat it poses to them and their world.


Dark carmine coloured hair pulled up into an elegant French roll, flawless alabaster skin so terrifyingly translucent you could see the delicate tracery of cobalt blue veins just beneath it's surface, the elegant bone structure of a queen but teemed with cheekbones so sharp you could almost imagine cutting yourself upon them made the woman standing beside Director Fury in the living room of the Avenger's Tower's main floor look beautiful but cold. It didn't help that she wore wrap around sunglasses that hid her eyes entirely or that her full impossibly red lips were set in a perfect line of indifference. The Avengers (sans their Asgardian friend of course) were all sat or sprawled around the room looking at the two newcomers, and the impressive amount of boxes and luggage that had come with them, with varying degrees of shock and wariness. The woman wore a figure hugging jacket of white leather over a loose v-neck camisole that almost matched her hair in colour with skin tight cream pants and barely calf height brown leather boots. She looked stunningly beautiful, almost like she had stepped off of the pages of a fashion magazine or just arrived from a fashion show in Milan or Paris but there was something about her that screamed...danger. An icy air that seemed to surround her like a cloud, warning people away from getting too close. It was, needless to say, unsettling. What was more unsettling was what the Director had come to the tower to demand.

"I'm sorry, you want me to do what?" Tony Stark, the owner of the tower and self-named resident genius-billionaire-philanthropist (he'd had to drop the playboy bit because of Pepper) asked, his voice betraying the rising irritation inside him at the temerity of the S.H.I.E.L.D leader.

"She's Barton and Romanoff's mission. She has people she needs protecting from and since you live with them she's moving in here." Fury replied with a tone of finality in his voice that made it clear that he was not to be contradicted but, as always, Tony Stark was all about contradicting people. Especially when they were trying to make him do something he really didn't want to do.

"No, no you see last time I checked this was still my tower and when someone wants to, I don't know, move in it's kind of customary to ask." Stark snarked back at the one eyed Director as he rose from his position on the sofa beside his long-time girlfriend Pepper and over to stand in front of the duo and the pile of what he assumed were the strange woman's belongings.

"You see Nick? I am not wanted here anymore than I wish to be here. Now that we have that cleared up I believe I shall be on my way." The strange woman spoke for the first time as she turned to her imposing companion with a tiny, icy smile upon her lips as she lifted an ivory embroidered scarf of blood red from where it had been resting atop one of her bags and draped it over her head before wrapping the ends around her neck so it draped across her shoulders. Turning on her heel she made to leave but a hand gripping her arm made her stop in her tracks.

She looked behind her at Nick Fury and raised one perfectly sculpted sanguine brow at him, displeasure and a dark dangerous promise of something almost undefinable written in every line of her body. He quickly removed his hand from her, as if burned, but continued to look at her with his one good eye.

"You said it yourself, you need somewhere to hide out from the people after you. I promised you my help, well this it. These people are the best at what they do, protecting people and that's what you need right now. Am I wrong?"

"I am no feeble female in need of a protection, I came to you looking for an ally not a glorified baby sitter." She snapped back at him, her temper flaring up like a fire stoked with new and explosive fuel. Then just as quickly as it had come, her anger passed and she was calm again. "Though you are correct, I do need help." With a sigh she stepped forward and walked back to her previous position at the S.H.I.E.L.D Director's side and turned back to the group of super-hero's who by now had all risen to stand beside their friend.

"Well, I suppose we had better get acquainted then, since you seem to be the newest addition to our little clubhouse here." Stark said with that trademark smirk of his that said 'I've just made a decision about you but you don't know why and you never will'.

"I suppose we had best. I am already familiar with your names so I believe I owe you mine. I am Lilith."


End file.
